New York Life Ins. Co. v. Turner

• Decision Date: 28 May 1925
• Docket Number: 2 Div. 852
• Parties: NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO. v. TURNER.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

104 So. 643

213 Ala. 286

NEW YORK LIFE INS. CO. v. TURNER.

2 Div. 852

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 28, 1925

Appeal from Circuit Court, Choctaw County; Ben D. Turner, Judge.

Action on a policy of life insurance by Beulah G. Turner against the New York Life Insurance Company. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

R.P Roach and V.R. Jansen, both of Mobile, for appellant.

Gray &amp Dansby, of Butler, and James J. Mayfield, of Montgomery, for appellee.

BOULDIN J.

The suit is upon a policy of life insurance. For decision on former appeal, see New York Life Ins. Co. v. Turner, 210 Ala. 197, 97 So. 687.

The case went to the jury on pleas of the general issue, a special plea setting up a breach of the suicide clause, and plea of tender of return premiums due under the terms of that clause.

There was no error in admitting, as evidence of notice of death the claimant's statement in form provided by the insurer. It was not objectionable on the ground that it appeared on the face of the paper to be only a part of proofs of death along with other statements called for therein. Under the issues, the burden was on plaintiff merely to show notice of death. If a defense is predicated upon failure or refusal to furnish proof in form or substance as stipulated in the policy, it must be by special plea. Manhattan Life Ins. Co. v. Verneuille, 156 Ala. 592, 598, 47 So. 72.

The other proofs referred to were later offered, and defendant had the benefit of the disclosures therein touching the cause of death, and error, if any, in admitting same by piecemeal, was harmless.

Again, it is without dispute that the insurer took notice of the claim, proceeded to pass upon it without objection to the sufficiency of proof, and offered to pay the amount admitted to be due in case of death by suicide. This was a waiver of any question of form of proof. Fire Insurance Cos. v. Felrath, 77 Ala. 194, 54 Am.Rep. 58; Commercial Fire Ins. Co. v. Allen, 80 Ala. 571, 1 So. 202; Capital City Ins. Co. v. Caldwell Bros., 95 Ala. 77, 10 So. 355.

In all events, the plaintiff was entitled to recover under the terms of the policy the amount of premiums paid by the insured. If, under the undisputed evidence, this was the limit of the amount recoverable, an affirmative charge directing a general verdict for defendant was at least misleading, and its refusal not reversible error. The charge should direct a special verdict for defendant on its plea of tender, or that plaintiff was entitled to recover no more than the amount of premiums paid, in case the plea of tender was not sustained.

But, aside from the form of the instructions requested, the evidence made a case for the jury upon the plea of self-destruction. It was so held on former appeal. We have compared the testimony in the two records, and find no substantial difference in the quantum or character of evidence on that issue. We adhere to that view upon a careful review of the evidence now presented.

A graver question is presented upon the motion for new trial upon the ground that the verdict was opposed to the weight of the evidence on the plea of suicide. We have made a careful study of the evidence in the record, in connection with briefs of counsel, and in the light of the presumptions to be indulged in reviewing the verdict of a jury upon circumstantial evidence not wholly free from conflict. The question is not free from difficulty.

An adequate review of the evidence would unduly extend this decision, with no good result. Without evidence of insanity the presumption is against the intentional taking of one's own life. We have held this a presumption of fact, rather than of law. The law, however, treats the presumption as an evidential fact as in case of the presumption of innocence of crime. A recognized basis of the presumption is that suicide is esteemed criminal in law. All such presumptions rest primarily upon common knowledge of the impulses and normal conduct of men. The love of life is an inherent natural desire. To voluntarily take one's own life is...